


Masks

by madgrace



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Multi, OT3, Slow Burn, superhero au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-11 14:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8987830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madgrace/pseuds/madgrace
Summary: If you told Katie a few years ago that she’d be jumping around Arus City in a stupid green leather outfit fighting the city’s local criminals she would have told you to seek mental help. But everything changed when an idiot in what looked like a superhero halloween costume literally flew into her life.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a superhero au set in modern times! This is just the prologue so it'll be pretty short. This is mainly Pidge and Lance centered but Keith will be appearing in the next chapter. Thanks for reading guys!

If you told Katie a few years ago that she’d be jumping around Arus City in a stupid green leather outfit fighting the city’s local criminals she would have told you to seek mental help. Never in her wildest dreams would she ever think herself as something like that, _a superhero_. She wouldn’t even consider herself the type of person to be a regular hero. No, she was too selfish and too busy minding her own business to put herself out there like that for the sake of protecting the city’s citizens. But a lot can happen in a few years. Hell, a lot can happen in just a single moment. 

Like losing everyone you’ve ever cared about. 

It had all happened **so fast**. 

One minute Katie, her brother and her parents are stepping inside a convenience store to grab a couple snacks, the next she’s in tears and surrounded by the fallen forms of her family and the  shop clerk. There had been so much blood, she was practically swimming in it.

The whole thing had started calmly enough. Her parents are going through the chip aisle while she and her brother Matt rush to look at the sweets available. They don’t even notice the slightly nervous looking boy enter the store until he’s shouting demands at the cashier and wielding a gun with shaky hands. 

He didn’t even need to shoot really the guy was doing what he wanted. Looking back now Katie doesn’t think he even meant to. He just pulled the trigger out of fear and panicking further until no one but her remained. She doesn’t remember much from that night. She’s done her best to try to forget that night. But she remembers the fear she felt and she remembers the fear in his eyes as he bolted from the scene. He had looked _so young,_ not much older than herself. He was far younger and far more scared than she’d expect a murderer to be. She doesn’t remember his face ( she really didn’t even get a good look at it ), but she remembers that fear almost childlike, like a child terrified of an oncoming monster about to attack. 

There was no monster though. No, it was **he** who was the monster. A monster who shot four people and likely a fifth if Katie hadn’t been able to hide properly. It didn’t matter that he had been young, it didn’t matter that he had been scared. He took her family, her whole world and she hates him for it. But what she hates more is that since then they’ve never been able to find him and her family’s murder has been left without justice. 

Even now five years later Katie hasn’t been able to let go. She’s grown up. She’s twenty now and she’s done her best to live her life and not let what happened tie her down. But her attempts of forgetting that awful night are futile. No matter what she does, no matter how hard she tries something will always bring her back to that night. Whether it be seeing a picture of her brother, hearing a song that her mother used to love, or remembering wise words that her father used to say. For the last five years she’s been haunted by that night and haunted by the memories of the ones she loved most. 

In hindsight the years since then haven’t been bad, not as bad as they could’ve been. After losing her family she moved into her grandparent’s house on the edge of the city. They took care of her and did their best to make sure she was safe and happy. It’s the best outcome she could have hoped for and yet she finds herself frequently leaving her grandparent’s efforts unappreciated. 

Don’t be mistake, Katie is incredibly grateful that her grandparents took her in and she’s grateful for everything they’ve done to help her adjust to being without her parents and brother. But she always comes back to their memories somehow and she can’t help feeling that it’s just not the same without them. 

Hopefully someday she’ll be able to move on, to let herself live a happy life without thinking about them. But that day is far, far away. At any rate she won’t be able to let go until the bastard that killed them is found and brought to justice. 

While the loss of her family did provide Katie plenty of motivation to go on a vengeful rampage in a cape in a mask, that’s not really started this whole thing. Sure she wants justice for her family, but in the last five years she’s been content to let the proper authorities to take care of it. She was, after all still a teenager at the time. She had important things to do like growing up and graduating high school. She didn’t exactly have the time to fight criminals in-between her AP classes and mountains of homework. Not that she had any time now.

But everything changed when an idiot in what looked like a superhero halloween costume literally flew into her life. 

It was unnecessary, completely unnecessary. She’s not a damsel in distress, she can take care of herself. She was ready to fight back when s thugs tried to mug her on her way to work. She didn’t need him to help her. 

Not that this stopped him. No, this guy didn’t see any issue with barging on in and punching the thugs bothering her. He didn’t see any issue with lifting Katie up **without her permission** and flying her away to god knows where. In fact this guy ‘Hurricane’ as he announced himself obnoxiously thought himself pretty heroic as he flew her higher into the air. 

“What the hell?! What are you doing?! Put me down now!”

He smirks, his blue eyes flashing deviously behind his flimsy mask. “Are you sure? It seems like a pretty far fall from here. But if you insist.” He feigns dropping her for a moment, moving the arm resting underneath her legs. Katie gasps, eyes darting between him and the ground several feet below. In her panic she grabs hold of him, wrapping her arms tighter around him and clinging for dear life. “Are you insane?!”

To her outrage this only makes him laugh, “See, that’s what I thought.”

Of all the people, of all the possible superheroes lurking around the city why did she have to get ‘rescued’ by this guy? She would have much preferred getting flown off by superman or captain america or anyone at this point. This guy was less of a superhero and more of a supermoron. 

He at least has the decency to drop her off not too far from the store where she works. At least after everything Katie won’t be late for work. But even then he’s incredibly flashy about it and she almost wishes she had superpowers so she could slap that supersmirk off his stupid face. He gives her one last grin before waving and flying back into the sky without a word. 

She would have been content to leave it there and never see that stupidly dressed superhero again but he just had to continue being an annoyance all over the city. His face is plastered everywhere on lampposts and billboards. Katie can’t even watch the news without some report of some ‘heroic deed’ done by ‘the mighty hurricane’. Mighty, honestly that was just laughable. If being flashy and barging into other people’s business made you mighty and heroic this city really has gone to the dogs. 

Arus needed a real hero. Someone who wasn’t so egocentric and full of himself. 

Someone like her. 

And that’s how she found herself here, clad in a sleek leather bodysuit and advanced technological glasses, standing on a rooftop across from that same stupid idiot calling himself a hero. 

The sort of stunned look on his face when he sees her causes her to be the smug one this time. She just felt so self satisfied and accomplished finally seeing his stupid bravado crumble. She smirks, carelessly tossing him a white and blue supersuit of her own creation along with a navy blue mask. He catches it, looking more confused by the second as he stares at her with wide eyes. 

“Who are you?”

“I’m your new competition.”


	2. Chapter 2

You know, movies and comic books make a superhero’s job look a lot easier than it actually is. 

Then again Katie, or ‘Virus’ as she goes by on her ‘late night outings’ isn’t necessarily a superhero, not really. She doesn’t have any superpowers to give her an extra advantage. Unlike her charismatic counterpart Hurricane she can’t fly immediately to wherever she needed to be. She can’t lift a car and hurl it at her foes with super strength and she can’t burn buildings with heat vision. All she has is her brains, her skills, and the equipment she’s made for herself. 

But this wasn’t any ordinary equipment. No, this was absolute state of the art technology she’d created, the kind of stuff you could easily believe Batman or Iron Man owned. Though Virus is not anywhere near as rich as either of those guys so in some respects her equipment is a little more flimsy than those found in cinematic superhero lairs. It’s no matter though, if anything it just makes her feat more impressive. She was able to make high tech super tools without the billion dollar budgets most superheroes seemed to conveniently have. No, she didn’t need all that money ( though it would be nice to have it ). All she needed to be a superhero was some old computer parts and her dad’s old toolbox. 

Nevertheless sometimes her tech wasn’t enough to pull through and get the job done. Sometimes it took the help of an obnoxious superhero clad in blue and white to defeat the criminals she came across. As the weeks passed and their lives as superheroes progressed Virus and Hurricane better resembled partners rather than rivals. After all they are on the same side and they are trying to achieve the same goal: to destroy all the crime in Arus. 

As annoying as he is and how little she enjoys his company Hurricane does help quite a bit. She’s glad to have him around, otherwise she probably would have been killed by some mob boss ages ago. She’d never say that to his face. No, he’d get way too smug about it and then she’d never hear the end of it. She already has to hear how she’s his ‘sidekick’ practically every time they meet up. 

Hah, sidekick — As if. 

If anything he’s her sidekick. 

It’s been about three months since she took up the role of Virus and things seem to be getting harder and harder the more missions they go on. Maybe that’s because they’re expecting them this time. But until now things still seemed relatively easy. Even if their foes did have high tech to match hers they still had Hurricane’s superpowers on their side. Where her equipment failed, his super strength and flight abilities succeeded. It seemed like there was no opponent that could match the two of them.

But all that changed when he came along. 

He came as dark and silent as a shadow. His movements were quick and precise and ever move he made was calculated. From the very beginning he stood different amongst the crowd of their previous foes. He was smarter and he didn’t need money, equipment or even super powers to get the job done. So in that regard Virus respected him. At the very least she was impressed at how well he did his job. 

Well…at least did his job well enough until he set off one of the many silent alarms surrounding the art museum where the two heroes had found him. 

He had the skill, the grace, and the precision of someone Virus would immediately associate as hired help. Whatever he may be; a thief, an assassin, a middleman for some shadier operative it was clear from the beginning that this guy wasn’t working alone. So the thought occurs to her that as intimidating and frightening this shadow seemed to be, the puppeteer pulling his strings is a force that is likely more worthy of their fear. 

The question is who is this mysterious man, who has hired him, and what do any of them stand to gain by robbing a few valuable paintings. Is this a simple matter of money or is something far more diabolical in the works?

He manages to stay silent for most of their encounter until Hurricane and Virus have him backed into a corner. To their surprise their mysterious foe only smirks from under the black mask across his face.

“Looks like you got me.”

His tone is far too casual, too amused for Virus’ liking and immediately she suspects something sinister is afoot. But before she can do anything a grunt of pain breaks the silence between them as Hurricane is kicked square in the gut. In a flash the thief races past them, grabbing one of the city’s prized paintings and prying it off the wall. He’s fast but she’s faster from her utility belt she pulls a small whip, gripping it tightly as she draws back and lashes it out in his direction. The whip finds it target, wrapping around one of the fleeing thief’s ankles and causing him to fall over. Virus smirks, pulling the whip towards her, the thief dragged along with it. 

Beside her Hurricane raises an eyebrow, a trace of a smirk on his lips as he moves his gaze from her to the whip in her hands.

“Since when have you had a whip?”

“What— I’ve always had a whip.”

“Really? Because I haven’t seen it before now and trust me I would have remembered seeing it since—”

Virus cuts him off mid sentence, groaning and rolling her eyes as she uses her free hand to raise her palm in his direction, “I’m gonna stop you right there,” she turns her attention to the fallen man before her, “Who are you?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“What?”

A flash of silver and suddenly he’s cut free of the whip. He rises to his feet, the tail end of Virus’ whip in his hand and a silver knife in the other. Carelessly he tosses the piece to Hurricane who catches it almost instantly.

“Who I am doesn’t matter. I’m merely a thief, a bandit if you will. All that matters are my employers and the cause they stand for.”

Virus opens her mouth to speak but is silenced when the bandit pulls a flare gun from his pocket. She reaches forward to stop him but is too late as the gun is fired directly into the ground causing the carpeted floor to immediately set fire. With the ever growing flame as a temporary diversion the bandit picks up the painting once more and sprints in the direction of one of the room’s windows. His hands full, he breaks the window with a forceful kick before stepping through it. 

Before he departs he turns his head back to them, a smirk on his lips, “So long.”

Without another word he leaps out of the third story window, disappearing from sight. On instinct she chases after him only to have a strong hand grab her forearm and stop her from running straight into a patch of particularly unruly flames. She whips her head around to see Hurricane staring at her intently, a rather solemn look on his face. 

“What are you doing?! He’s going to get away!”

“We can worry about that later. We need to get out of here.”

“But—”

“You wanna be burnt to a crisp?!”

He surprises her as his voice rises. He’s hardly rarely shouted at her, if ever. He always seemed to keep his cool…for the most part anyway. There were a few times where he’d scream or squeal from fear from some sort of danger they were encountering. But this wasn’t like that. Those shouts were over the top, goofy even. They seemed to fit a guy like him. But this is different. He’s serious ( as one should be when one is about to catch fire ), far more serious than she’s ever seen him. 

She swallows, meeting his hardened gaze with a grim expression. “Okay. But we really shouldn’t just leave this place like this.”

He shakes his head, still holding onto her arm as he begins to ascend from the floor. “We can’t worry about that right now. The fire sprinklers should be able to put out most of this. We need to go, come on.”

With more force than she’d deem necessary Hurricane hoists Virus up into the air along with him. He lifts her up into his arms as he soars over the ever-growing flames below. Instantly she’s reminded of their first encounter. 

It’s been a long time since she’d first met him really, at least six months if she’s not mistaken. It feels like a lifetime has passed since then. Yet at the same time she can recall it like it was yesterday. He’d been over the top and flashy even then. Even in that stupid looking halloween costume he donned on he managed to pull through all sorts of challenges. He didn’t need the special suit she made to become a hero. He’d done that all on his own. She can’t deny that no matter how much she wants to. Obnoxious and annoying he may be, he still had been able rise to the challenge of facing criminals on the daily. The first time she’d met him she wouldn’t have thought him capable of doing so. He’s really grown since she met him. 

But a lot of things have stayed the same. Besides his personality and his clear overconfidence she really doesn’t know much about him. It’s understandable what with their secret identities and all but it’s still slightly unsettling knowing she’s putting her trust in someone she doesn’t even know. 

It’s partially her own fault really. She’s been the one so insistent to keep their identities a secret. It just seemed easier that way at the time. No way of getting too attached and if one of them happened to be captured and questioned for information, they would be able to keep the other one safe. It’s the sensible thing to do and Virus always tended to do what was sensible. 

But still the feeling of overwhelming curiosity and longing for the truth rivals her desire to be sensible. If Virus had less self control she’d probably have revealed herself to him at this point and she knows if she hadn’t been so insistent on keeping their identities a secret Hurricane would’ve likely revealed himself as well. For he has considerably less control than her, that’s been evident from the very beginning. 

Once flown across the room and through the broken window where their mysterious foe had escaped a few minutes prior, Virus throws herself out of Hurricane’s arms. She causes the other to gasp as she began to fall toward the city floor several stories below. “Virus!—”

She chuckles to herself as she falls, perhaps a little too relaxed considering the circumstances. Quickly she pulls out her grappling hook from the utility belt across her hips, launching it onto one of the ledges along the building’s outer wall. The hook finds it’s target and she’s hoisted upwards as a very distressed Hurricane comes into view. 

“You really need to stop doing that.”

“— and miss that look on your face, **never**.”

“You know next time I’m not going to come down and try to rescue you.”

It’s a lie, they both know it at this point. Ever since they first met he’s always tried to be the hero and come save her. Whether this be to because of an intense need to always be chivalrous or simply due to genuine care and concern he’s always come after her. To a certain extent she appreciates it. It’s good to know he’ll always have her back even when she doesn’t ask for his help. But she’s not a damsel, she never has been. She doesn’t need him to sweep her off her feet and save her from imposing danger. 

Not that that will stop him from trying.

She smirks at him, raising an eyebrow in a sort of challenging fashion. “Is that a threat or a promise?”

“Shut up.”

She rolls her eyes, still hanging from her hook several feet off the ground. She turns her attention away from him, looking off into the distance in some hope of finding a trail of where their masked foe and disappeared off to. 

Alas, nothing.

She sighs, her expression crumbling into a look of mixed disappointment and shame. They’ve failed, she’s failed. She’d let him get away and now he’s likely reeking havoc somewhere else in the city. She’s put further citizens and property in danger of him just because she was stupid enough to underestimate him. She ought to be ashamed of herself…she is ashamed of herself. She won’t make the same mistake again. 

“We lost him,” she states simply, her regret evident in the hollowness of her voice.

Hurricane on the other hand looks far less despondent, hovering beside her with a sort of determined look on his face. “We’ll find him.”

“You don’t know that. He was like— like nothing we’ve ever seen before.”

“True,” he says shrugging, the slightest trace of a smile on his face, “But **we’re** nothing like anyone has ever seen before.”

It’s a rare occurrence when his overconfidence does something other than annoy her. Like at this moment he’s actually been able to lift her spirits some despite the circumstances. It’s times like these that she’s incredibly grateful to have him around. She daren’t admit it but she doubts she’d have lasted this long without him. Whether she would’ve been killed by one of their foes or simply given up due to her cynical nature she definitely would have been through by now. 

Hurricane takes her silence as further doubt, reaching forward and putting a surprisingly gentle hand on her shoulder. “We’ll stop him. I promise.”

And for a moment she almost believes him. 

* * *

 

The next morning their encounter with the bandit is on every news channel in the city. Katie can’t turn on the TV or get on her laptop with some report of the Arus City Museum burning down and Hurricane and Virus’ failed attempt at capturing the arsonist. It’s humiliating honestly; having to hear bleached blonde smooth talking reporters joking about their shortcomings or hearing some snotty faced internet celebrity accusing them of being incompetent. 

They had no right to do so either. None of them were there, none of them had to face their foe’s deceptive skills and ability to light up nearly an entire room in mere seconds. They had no right to criticize or poke fun at them, especially considering for the last few months they’ve done nothing but praise them for keeping the city free from crime. 

Reporters are so fake. 

Perhaps the worst part of this all is the fact that she’s not allowed to visibly be offended or upset in public whenever her shortcomings are mentioned. For by day she’s Katie Holt, broke college graduate and Walmart employee. She has no tie to Virus or Hurricane or anything superhero related and she’d prefer to keep it that way. 

All the news leaves Katie in a bit of an irritable mood when she arrives to work later that morning. She’s really not in the mood to converse with her coworkers which is usual for her really. But today she’s especially cranky and would rather not hear more discussion on the masked heroes of Arus. So when a lanky energetic figure blocks her path to the vending machine she’s less than amused. 

“Aw, Kitty why the long face? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?”

“Go away, Lance.”

She doesn’t even bother to look up into the face of her interrupter as she roughly pushes him away from the snack machine. She knows who it is and while in different circumstances she’d enjoy his company, at the moment she’s positive talking to Lance will only make her more irritable. 

Katie’s known Lance Mcclain for the better part of six years, meeting him some time during her freshman year of high school. Despite this she doesn’t exactly know him very well, or at least not as much as one would expect knowing someone so long. When Katie moved in with her grandparents following her family’s murder she lost touch with him and the rest of her friends from high school until she moved back into the city for college a couple years prior. 

It was actually Lance who had managed to get her this job. It’s not necessarily a great job and no doubt she’ll leave for a better one in the next couple of years. But he didn’t have to do it, he didn’t have to help her but that just seemed to be how Lance was. He was generous and he was kind but he tended to dismiss every good thing he’s ever done as nothing. Yet at the same time he’d boast and brag on end about the stupidest insignificant things. But whether or not she’ll admit it he did Katie a real solid in helping her especially considering she hadn’t bothered to keep in touch with him until her freshman year of college. 

It was nothing against him really, it wasn’t against anyone. Her remaining years of high school and the years following the death of her family were hard. The world had seemed to turn itself away from her so she retaliated and turned herself away from the world. It’s the sort of thing one could expect from a teenager going through a trauma like that.

But Lance never held it against her. In fact the first time they had met up since she’d moved back into the city he acted like nothing had changed, like she was still his short and nerdy high school classmate and not the serious and short tempered young woman she is today. To some extent this bothered her because no matter how much she wanted to be and how much she pretended to be, she’s not the girl she used to be all those years ago. But mostly she’s grateful for his ability to bounce back so quickly and his lack of personal questions regarding her family’s murder. 

Katie has had to tell the story to countless police officers, family members, and miscellaneous acquaintances. She doesn’t want to talk about it anymore, she **won’t** talk about it anymore. So she’s grateful when someone has the decency to leave well enough alone. Therefore she’s appreciative of Lance. 

However that won’t stop Katie from pushing him away when he’s annoying her like he is now.

Lance raises an eyebrow, looking over at her curiously as she buys a nutter butter from the snack machine. He’s amused more than anything but for a moment Katie can detect a flash of concern in his dark blue eyes. However it disappears as quickly as it appears and his expression twists into his usual lopsided grin. 

“Is that any way to treat your best friend?”

“You’re not my best friend.”

“What?! How am I not your best friend? Who’s your best friend?”

“Bite me.”

“Well if you insist.”

She rolls her eyes, “Oh, shut up.”

Grabbing her purchased snack she heads in the direction of the employee lounge, Lance following her in toe. For a moment they walk in ( cherished ) silence until Lance speaks up again, an amused grin on his face.

“Did you meet the new guy yet?”

“I still haven’t met half the people who work here Lance. I’m not really the chatty type.”

“Yeah okay, fair enough but this guy is super freaky. Like he’s as even more antisocial than **you** you.”

At the last comment she shoots him an irritated look. In response Lance sighs, waving his hand at her dismissively. “You know what I mean. Okay the point is this guy is weird. He didn’t show up in his uniform this morning either. I guess it is his first day but that’s kind of a requirement you know? So anyway I tried talking to him earlier.”

“What did he do? Scratch you?”

Lance ignores the comment, “No, he didn’t say anything. Completely ignored me like I wasn’t even there.”

“Wow, imagine someone _actually_ not wanting to talk to **you** ,” she replies rather sourly. 

Lance stops walking abruptly, grabbing Katie’s arm to prevent her from moving either. Further irritated she tries to free herself from his grasp but Lance’s grip is strong, far stronger than she would have expected. She sends a glare in his direction.

“What’s your problem?” She hisses, still trying to free her arm.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“What?”

“Are you okay? You seem off, more pissy than usual.”

“I’m fine,” she lies, “Just didn’t get much sleep that’s all. Just leave me alone, okay?”

Finally freeing herself from his grasp she scurries away from him and into the employee lounge. Thankfully this time Lance was smart enough not to follow her. She lets the door slam behind her, huffing as she throws herself into one of the stiff armchairs scattered across the room.

The lounge is a plain room with bare beige walls, cheap furniture and dust covering every inch of the place. A plain counter rests in the back of the room, the countertop bare save for a worn looking coffeemaker. A bookshelf lays not to far from the door, laden with books that look like they haven’t been touched in ages ( Katie’s not surprised really. She inspected the books at some point during her first day and most of them looked to be trashy romance novels ). The only thing that is frequently touched is the beat up looking television sitting in the center of the room. 

The lounge is almost entirely empty save for herself and a dark haired guy sclad in a black t-shirt and jeans and sitting on a worn leather couch on the other side of the room. Katie can only assume this is the ‘weird new guy’ Lance was referring to. She raises an eyebrow looking over at him curiously. She accidentally meets his eyes and she hurriedly shifts her gaze back into her lap. 

For the next several minutes there’s silence, Katie shutting her eyes curling herself into the chair  to take a nap and the new guy going through his phone. However after a while the silence is broken by the sound of the tv being turned on followed by high pitched cartoon character voices. Curiosity peaked along with slight annoyance of having her precious silence she opens her eyes and sits up in her chair. 

It takes a couple of seconds to properly process what she sees when she opens her eyes, her brows furrowing as she darts her confused gaze in-between the cartoons playing on the tv to the scary looking guy watching them. 

Lance was right, this guy was weird. Noadult in their right mind would watch _this crap_ during their lunch break. Honestly reading the romance novels sounded more preferable. 

“Seriously, this is what you’re watching?”

The other guy seems slightly surprised by her sudden output, raising an eyebrow at her before shrugging. “It was already on so I figured I’d give it a shot. I’m starting to regret that decision now though.”

She chuckles, getting to her feet and walking toward him. Reaching forward she takes the remote from off the armrest of the couch and switches the channel to yet another cartoon show. However this show is at least in Katie’s humble opinion far better than the previous one. She used to watch it in her younger years and unlike most long running cartoons actually kept producing quality entertainment, earning their long run. 

She hands the remote back to him, a self satisfied expression on her face. “If you’re going to watch kids cartoons, at least watch one that won’t make you lose brain cells.”

He takes the remote, pausing a moment to inspect the current show playing curiously. After a moment he turns his attention back to Katie. “I think I used to watch this when I was a kid. Good taste.”

She grins, “It’s not hard to pick out the good shows when the rest are so mind numbingly stupid.”

“Yeah. Thanks…uh—” 

“Katie,” she answers outstretching a hand to shake. 

He takes it, his grip strong ( almost hand crushingly so ) as he shakes it. “Keith.”

“Well, Keith—” she begins, plopping herself down on the couch cushion beside him, “…scoot over. This is one of my favorite episodes.”


End file.
